10 — THE BULLETIN — Thursday, October 5, 1978
BULLETIN FEATURE
Special to .The Bulletin
Dr. Maurice Halperin of Simon Frasier University has led a full and adventurous life. It has taken him into the corridors of the U.N. in the days when IsraeFs fate hung in the balance; into the State Department in Washington, P.C, during the tense days of World War H; into Moscow*s Academy of Sciences; and into Castro*s Cuba during the heyday of the Cuban Revolutionary regime.
(the latter is subject of a book, The Rise and Decline of Fidel Castro, an Essay in Contemporary History, the second volume of which is now in progress.)
Halperin has returned to the country where his father first began his adventure in the New World, in Montreal, at the turn of the century. Now the oldest professor at Simon Fraser University, he continues to publish and reflect, on the many people and places he has known.
An alumnus of Harvard and the Sorbonne with a Doctorate in Comparative Literature, Dr. Halperin found himself at the beginning of the Depression at the University of Oklahoma. A vacation trip to nearby Mexico opened up a whole new world.
'*It was a shockto cross the border and come into an entirely different civilization,** he recalls. **It aroused my curiosity. Before long I was reading, visiting, writing -ahd teaching about Mexico, then Latin America. ^
**The early thirties was a period of pressures in international affairs. The field of Latin American Studies was practically undeveloped. I had a sense of being a pioneer.**
His work in the field of Latin American studies led to his being called to Washington during World War II, where he held the posts of Chief of the Latin American Division in the Office of Strategic Services and the corresponding bureau in the State Department.
**I had a front row seat in the planning of some of the most interesting operations in the war,** he says. **I was associated with a whole group of social scientists in different disciplines.**
The war was hardly over when Dr. Halperin plunged into work at the fledgling United Nations Organization trying out its new wings in New Yorki Not only the aftermath of World War II and the colonial period occupied their thoughts, but the demand of the reborn state of Israel to be recognized.
From his post as consultant to the
Economic and Social Council of the U .N., Dr. Halperin was able to assist the Jewish Agency, the American Jewish Conference and the British Board of Deputies in preparing submissions both on the statehood of Israel and restitution of property arid indemnification for ^ Jewish losses in Nazi Germany.
•*I was an informal lobbyist bietweeri the Jewish Agency and several Latin American delegations at the U.N.,** hesays,**cOncentrating on the countries whose delegates were personal friends — Mexico, Chile, Venezuela and Uruguay. I. was ; also responsible for the. inauguration of U.N. broadcasts in Hebrew six months before the State of Israel was established.
**Duririg Chaim Weizmann's visit to the U.N. in 1947 I was privileged to meet with him, and I also knew and worked with many of the original Zionist feaders of the time — MosheSharett, who became Israel's first Foreign Minister; Louis Lipsky, President of ZiO.A.; Henry Monsky of B'nai B*rith. I traded cigars with Nahum Goldmann, later president of the World Jewish Congress and worked with Rose Halpern (no relation), former president of American Hadassah.
**Moshe Sharett inipressied me as' having a sharp mind and a good, dry sense of humor    a very sober and' realistic man. But meeting Chaim Weizmann, I felt as though I were, meeting aii historic monument. I Was b^^^       6y him;^
As. a Siippbrter of Israel, Dr. Kalperih had a family tradition to uphold. **My parents were culturally motivated Jews, I'd say. They had a sense of national identity. They must have had — my brother was named Theodore Herzl, of whom they were great admirers.**
That younger brother* Theodore Herzl Halperin, is today New England regional director of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Having helped to seat Israel among the council of the nations. Dr. Halperin returned to academic life as head of Latin American regional studies at Boston University. Work in Brazil led to his being awarded the Order of the Southern Cross in 195Z
But he was not allpwecLto sink, comfortably into an academic gan e^few -r- quite the reverse. The early fifties saw the rise of an ugly mood in the United States, as a result of the cold and warm wars being.fought between Ea&t and Wesl.iThe rise of McCarthyism challenged Dr. Halr perin with a matter of conscience.
••I was faced with the choice of co-
operating with the -Inquisition* or losing my job. It would have turned me into an informer against people who, as far as I knew, had committed no crime, f couldn't face my students had I turned informer.**
So Halperin left for another post, this one back in Mexico where he had begun his work so many years before. From the National University of Mexico City he went on to spend three years at the Academy of Sciences in .Moscow.
He was in Russia in the early sixties, before the 1967 break with: Israel
**Russia is the only coui^tiy in the world where antirSemitism is outlawed (outside; of Israel), since the early Communist viewed anti-Jewish feelings as smacking of-Czarist oppression.lnd(e«<), the Czar-used the anti-Semitic feelings of the Russians as a tool to manipulate both;Russian and Jew before the Revolution^'
-Yet I found the government of Russia^ sponsoring anti-Semitism when it i suited. I met Jewish^ professionals at the Institute of World Economic and International Affairs'where I was giving seminars on Latin America.
**A11 the Jews I met were aware of the gfeat contrast between what the Revolution had promised and yrhat;
DR. MAURICE HALPERIN in a rare moment of relaxation.
Ml
*My own experience convinced me that after seeing socialism in operation, and keeping an open mindi one becomes more skeptical about the socialist experiment.**
The result of those years in Cuba wasj among a host of other articles and publications on Latin America, his book The Rise and Decline of Fidel Castro, an Essay in Contemporary   History  (University of
really occurred. These peoplcUiall J P^^JPTO .   ^ .
l*rafLio«fe!s,^-hid one ^-^i^f'll^^^^ attitudes.      '      ;   v; , . VI ^rl.S^jM ^heauthontative study on
-Some had de^idedto live with it; 1'^^^^^^ ^^^Jk fi'^,
They haag6odjobs.asscientistsarid : called/The Revolution that failed,' d^ct^rs; Iven though they were        although begun m great hopes.
restricte4'in certain areas. There Was^ for instance, not a single Jew iri the Foreign Office, not bven as a janitdr. In every other respect these Jews were comfortable. Many were married to non-Jews. Some weresad
the revolution has foundered, n **Castrb tried independence, explains Dr. Halperin. **Castro is a man of great ambitions, in the sense of seeking a place in history. He*s a man with a mission; not wealth but
that their children were losing their motivates him. He is a man of
Jewish identity. But the idea of 8^^^^ ^a^®"^, .f   chansma. His
protesting  requires  heroism,and overseas exploits are aU a part of this
most people are not heroes. Asking sense pf m«sion.
^                                o **Before 1970 he tned to go it
alc^e^^t sih^      he has become an unqualified supporter of the A second group was yeiy much  g^yigj union both in foreign policy
and in ideology.*
to leave the dangerous.
country w^as. also
disturbed by the problem'and wanted their children to be.awafe of their heritage as Jews. But I knew none who were goihg. to.. do something active'about it.
•*I myself, aside from one remark once made about me in a post office^
A second volume of the book on {Cuba will fbe; ready for publication soon and will include a chapter on the Jews and Castro.
**Most Cuban Jews were business-
German settlers toward the fatherland, was the pre-Ecumenical attitude of the dominant Catholic church.
"The Jewish community of about one-half million made an ideal scapegoat. Under the dictator Peron, Argentina was a nonbelligerent ally of the Axis powers, and even today the country is one of the most active anti-^Semitic centres in the world." ';
c«BafrkgUdy*^quite ^^different.^ Thflre'-^re practically ho Jfews there; and the country is a haven for Nazis purely because it pays the very corrupt and backward dictatorship to let them in.
**The Jews of Chile have left because of the continued instability of that country. Jews are more alert to these things; they have a tradition of packing up when things get bad.**
An invitation to lead a seminar resulted in Dr. Halperin taking^up residence in Vancouver and joining the department of political science at SFU. Next fall he will be teaching a course at the Centre for Continuing Education on ^'Relations Between Developed and Developing Countries,** as well as working on his book.
experiencednodiscrimmation.ButI ^^^^ Revolution,
was there as an American and the Russians were very sensitive about public relations.**
It was also'there in Moscow that, in a midnight encounter, Halperin's life took yet another fatdful turn.
, Late at night came a knock on the periods. Up until the early seventies door. When it operiedy there stood' Castro maintained relations with
Dr. Halperin points out. "Those who remain are treated relatively decently.
"Relations ; with Israel are something else. They fall into two
Che Guevara with a few comrades. A mutual friend had sent them.
Would he consider accepting a position to teach at theUniversity of Havana? Indeed he would. For the
Israel:
*^Afte^ 1973, ho Castro broke rels^tibns and took the lead in denouncing Israel at all interna-
next fouryears, from1963-1967, Dr. gathering. Castro continues
,«c«o,;i,;«   to equate Zionism with racism at every U.N. forum. It*s what pays off
Halperin taught anddid research in Castro*s Cuba at a time when the entire hemisphere was fascinated and inflamed by the Cuban Revolution.
"After I got to Havana I didn*t have much contact with Guevara. In
Moscow he had seemed veiy open to   ""^^^^ collapse.
in terms of Castro*s leadership pretensions^ in bargaining with the Arabs and the United States, and in getting support from Russia. Without the latter, Cuba*s economy
WIFE, EDITH, and Prof. Halperin at their home in Coquitlam.
all kinds of ideas; He had a critical attitude toward socialist experiments and was groping for something unique. .
"In Cuba our, ideas moved in different directions. He became more dogmatic, almost Utopian. Guevara seemed to fe^l the Chinese had found the my^;M>^ to consider the Yugoslavian model.
"In other Latin American counties the situation of the Jews ^varies. In Argentina; for instance, . there is a large German and Italian population which transferred European anti-Semitism from Europe. It was kept under control until the rise of Nazism'. Combined with the econoinic crisis of the thirties arid the patriotic attitude of
But wait, that*s riot all. He is also the university*s "senior jock,*' running two miles a day four days a week and swimming one-half a mile the other three days. He also plays in - the New'Westminster Symphony Orchestra and is a founding member of the Burquest Jewish Community association.
Through all his wanderings his family seems to have enjoyed life as much as he did. His wife, Edith, is a French and social studies teacher; while they were at the U.N. she taught at the Crown Heights Yeshiva in Brooklyn. Here she is active in the Royal City chapter of Hadassah, as well as continuing to teach part-time in Coquitlam.
•   ■ ■
Son David is.a pediatric surgeon in Maine, while daughter Judith is the wife of Rabbi Hillel Gamoran in Illinois. Three grandchildren have studied in Israel.
Maurice. Halperin is.a man of scholarship and sensitivity — someone who has lived through and been a part of history. He has kept his sense of humor and maintained a link to the culture and history of his people.
"Being a Jew,** he concludes, "gives one an. 4dvantageous perspective oii hymari problems and ^he Wum^n^^QI^